NEVER cook anything on the stovetop UNcovered unless you're just boiling water, cooking pasta or sautéing. Excessive aeration kills nutrients. Flavor, too, escapes in the steam.

NEVER throw out the water in the bottom of the pan you just used for steaming vegetables or fish or chicken breasts. It's perfect soup stock if you'll just let it cool, put into a freezer container, label it for future use: free nutrients and flavor.

NEVER eat poultry skin or dark meat. The vast majority of FAT in chicken, turkey, game hens, birds of any kind lies just beneath the skin and in the dark meat: legs and thighs. Beef, of course, you can easily eat around the fat and gristle.

NEVER eat anything deep-fried or fried. Grilling is better, less messy.

NEVER cook black pepper into a dish, add it toward the end otherwise it tends to add a bitter flavor rather than the desired piquancy.

NEVER put oil into a 'cold' wok or saute pan. That will guarantee food sticking. Wait till the pan is heated up. Old Chinese proverb goes like this:

'Hot pan, cold oil - food no stick.'